Carolyn Carlson

Carolyn Carlson is a dancer, choreographer, poet and visual artist born in Oakland, California, on 7 March 1943. Her career connects American modern dance with the development of contemporary dance in France and Italy. She became a French citizen in 2019. [1]

After studying at the University of Utah, Carlson performed with Alwin Nikolais’s company from 1965 to 1971. His approach to movement and composition informed her artistic development. She arrived in France in 1971 and created Rituel pour un rêve mort the following year. Her subsequent work at the Paris Opera’s GRTOP and Venice’s Teatrodanza La Fenice brought experimental choreography into major theatre institutions. [2]

Her work also extends to teaching and the transmission of repertoire. She founded the Atelier de Paris in 1999, led the national choreographic centre in Roubaix from 2004 to 2013 and founded the Carolyn Carlson Company in 2014. The company’s official chronology records her artistic directorship from 2014 to 2025. [2] [3]

Carlson describes her choreography as “visual poetry”. Philosophy and spirituality are recurring reference points in her account of her practice: movement is one means of expressing a wider poetic imagination. [2]

Writing and drawing form another part of that practice. Her poetry has appeared with publishers including Actes Sud and Gallimard, while her graphic work has been exhibited in museums and galleries. Numeridanse also documents her work through films, interviews and performance recordings, offering further ways to explore the relationship between her stage and visual art. [3]

• 1974–1980: étoile-chorégraphe at the Paris Opera, working with GRTOP.
• 1980–1984: artistic director of Teatrodanza La Fenice, Venice.
• 1994–1995: artistic director of Cullberg Ballet, Stockholm.
• 1999–2002: artistic director of the Venice Biennale’s dance section. [2]
• 2006: awarded the Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion for her choreographic work.
• 2 December 2020: elected to the choreography section of the Académie des beaux-arts. [1]

Her repertoire includes Density 21.5, Blue Lady, Steppe, Maa, Signes, Writings on Water and Inanna. Numeridanse’s Carolyn Carlson collection offers a starting point for exploring her work on film. These titles are biographical references; their inclusion here does not indicate that complete performances are available to stream. [3]

In Midnight Souls, Carolyn Carlson’s choreography meets the architecture of Avignon’s Palais des Papes. Hugo Marchand and Caroline Osmont perform in a film directed by Tommy Pascal.

Follow the dancers’ relationship with the space, then explore the production guide for credits and viewing information.